Traci Recommends Giving Mary Calmes’s “Acrobat” A Good Listening To

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ― Joseph Campbell

Title: Acrobat

Author: Mary Calmes

Narrator: Sean Crisden

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Length: 6 hours, 34 minutes

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb: Forty-five-year-old English professor Nathan Qells is very good at making people feel important. What he’s not very good at is sticking around afterward. He’s a nice guy; he just doesn’t feel things the way other people do. So even after all the time he’s spent taking care of Michael, the kid across the hall, he doesn’t realize that Michael’s mob muscle uncle and guardian, Andreo Fiore, has slowly been falling in love with him.

Dreo has bigger problems than getting Nate to see him as a potential partner. He’s raising his nephew, trying to leave his unsavory job, and starting his own business, a process made infinitely more difficult when a series of hits takes out some key underworld players. Still, Dreo is determined to build a life he can be proud of—a life with Nate as a cornerstone. A life that is starting to look like exactly what Nate has been seeking. Unfortunately for Dreo—and for Nate—the last hits were just part of a major reorganization, and Dreo’s obvious love for Nate has made him a target too.

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Review: This book has been around awhile but was recently narrated by one of my favorites, Sean Crisden. The only thing that made this book better for me was the narration. I love this book, the characters, the writing style, descriptions, and conversations. Mary Calmes has a great way of talking in POVs and in conversation between characters. Listening to her stories in audio proves this because of how smooth the story flows. It is an investment to buy an audio, so narration and an interesting story are so important. Nothing is worse than buying an audio without those two parts. This is not the case in Acrobat.

Sean Crisden changes into so many great voices throughout this story. He is one of the best at switching between characters, as well as between male and female vocals. You actually can image the characters in your mind and picture their faces (or the faces I want to see, haha) while listening to him. I have so many book boyfriends because of Sean, and Nathan, Dreo, and even Ben were added to that list. He changes between a professor, an “Italian Mafioso” with a great accent, a teenager, a grandmother, a grandfather, and an ex-wife. He can make you laugh, cry and gasp with his narration. This is not just a reading, this is a performance, and boy, does he give an incredible performance.

There are so many great reviews of this book, so I won’t repeat how wonderful it is and how this is truly one of Mary Calmes’s best standalone stories. I will say she introduces one of my favorite characters, Duncan Stiel, detective and Nate’s ex, who we do see later in her series “A Matter of Time”.

This book is one where owning the audio and the book are worth the money. I have already listened to this book several times, so it is definitely worth every penny!

You can buy Acrobat here: